Kevin Casey delivers the right that knocked Andrew Sanchez down before finishing him at 2:30 of the first round to win the first RFA middleweight title at RFA 15 at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Culver City on Friday night. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)

After listening to Andrew Sanchez promising he was going to knock him out, “King” Kevin Casey turned the tables at RFA 15 by registering a first-round knockout victory to win the first RFA middleweight title Friday night at Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

“I feel amazing. A lot of hard work went into this camp,” said the Los Angeles fighter, who engaged in a lot of trash-talking with Sanchez leading up to the fight. “I made so many sacrifices to get this belt. I took this very seriously without taking it personal. It feels great to get this on my resume now.”

Casey (8-3), who had won his last bout with an impressive ground-and-pound TKO of Eddie Mendez at RFA 12 in January, never even got this fight to the mat.

The Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt, who trains at Black House MMA gym, stunned Sanchez (5-2) with a left and followed with another. Sanchez was wobbled and appeared to be slowly crumbling when Casey tagged him with a right. Sanchez hit the canvas and Casey pounced with two more shots for good measure before the referee jumped in to stop it at 2:30 of the first round

“I can’t even really describe the feeling that I felt when I saw him drop and I knew I was gonna get those other shots in before the ref could grab me,” Casey said. “I was definitely hyped about that and just very happy.”

In the co-main event, Alan Jouban and Ricky Legere Jr. engaged in an entertaining, back-and-forth welterweight battle before Jouban pulled out a split-decision victory.

The judges scored it 28-29, 29-28, 29-28 for the Los Angeles fighter.

“Alan showed a lot of heart and same with Ricky Legere, man,” RFA president Ed Soares said. “Both those guys to me, that was a great fight. That could be up for Fight of the Night for sure.”

The second round might have been the best five minutes of the entire night. Legere found his way to Jouban’s back and sunk in a neck crank before switching to full mount. After delivering some punishment, Legere returned to Jouban’s back and secured a standing rear-naked choke. Not only did Jouban find a way to persevere, he shook off Legere and landed in his guard, dropping damaging elbows before the horn sounded.

In the decisive third round, Jouban (9-2) took a big breath with 3:30 left and went to work. Over a minute later, he landed two big head kicks, and with a minute left, shook Legere (18-5) with a left-right combination.

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Fellow Black House fighter James Moontasri might have had the night’s highlight knockout when, several seconds after staggering Jordan Rinaldi with a left hook, he caught Rinaldi coming in with a perfectly timed right. The short uppercut was on the button and Rinaldi appeared out on his feet before falling backward. Fortunately, the referee jumped in quickly to end the fight at 1:14 of the second round.

“I knew I had stunned him earlier in the round but I didn’t want to waste my energy. I didn’t want to really force the knockout too much,” Moontasri said. “I knew if I stayed patient, I knew that eventually I was going to be able to time him. It’s just something I’ve trained for thousands and thousands of times in the gym.”

Rinaldi was out for several minutes and eventually came to and was communicating with the medical staff, but was strapped to a stretcher and taken to an ambulance. Soares said he didn’t know where Rinaldi was taken or his condition.

Joseph Rinaldi tweeted that his brother was awake and had a possible concussion, then updated it to say the CT scan came back negative and he was was soon being discharged from the hospital.

In the oddest fight of the night, Sam Toomer remained unbeaten after referee MIke Beltran disqualified Daniel Aguiar for refusing to engage at 4:25 of the third round.

The taller Toomer (8-0), using his reach and speed, smartly circled away from Aguiar and peppered him with punches throughout the fight. Aguiar, meanwhile, couldn’t get inside and his attempts to shoot and take Toomer down were thwarted.

Late in the first round, Aguiar began to try to pull guard in an effort to get Toomer to play to his strength. When Toomer refused, Aguiar became even more desperate and obvious as the fight went on. While some leg kicks did trip him up, Aguiar also did some acting and went down on his own in hopes of getting Toomer to follow him.

Pretty soon, Aguiar was simply dropping to the mat and scooting on his butt toward Toomer, but the San Diego featherweight wouldn’t bite. Beltran eventually warned Aguiar (10-4) in the third round, then later took a point away. Finally, with the crowd booing Aguiar’s blatant flopping, Beltran had seen enough and waved off the fight, disqualifying Aguiar at 4:25 of the final round.

In an entertaining featherweight fight with nonstop action, Chinzo Machida (3-2) earned a unanimous-decision victory over a game Dmitry Gerasimov (3-2).

Justin Jones opened the main card with a stunning upset of John Hackleman Jr. Jones (3-0) connected early on two major blows, both putting Hackleman on his wallet. When Hackleman (2-1) tried to sit up and rise against the cage after the second knockdown, Jones clamped on a guillotine choke, getting the tapout victory in just 2:01.

Featherweight Justin Linn (6-1) defeated Altair Alencar after Alencar (7-2) suffered a left knee injury midway through the first round in the final bout on the prelim card.

In the only women’s fight on the card, 105-pounder Rosa Acevedo (2-1) overcame a rocky first round for a unanimous-decision victory over Kyra Batara (1-1).